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People are always talking about Z80 and 68K programming, but I don't really see anything in the Z80 categories about the TI-86. Does anyone here still use them? I'd recommend one over an 83+: despite being discontinued, they're by far the most powerful Z80 out there. Anyone here still programming one?

I never really got why they 86'd the 86. Yeah, it may not have flash capabilities, but it had a lot of style and function for the cost. And you've gotta love the wide screen and RAM for gaming purposes and such. I guess they just had to make room in the product line.

I've always said they canned the 86 because it was slow. Primarily because it's RAM was so large they had to do RAM paging.

If they would have made an 86+ with the smaller ram footprint of the 85 and the flash capabilities of the 83 in place of the extra ram, it would have sold well, but for whatever reason, Ti is fixated on keeping the 82 around until the end of time, while phasing out their more capable models (the 85 and 92 variants) and replacing them with inferior models (such as the Nspire.)

Last edited by Guest on 01 Nov 2009 09:41:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

Ti is fixated on keeping the 82 around until the end of time, while phasing out their more capable models (the 85 and 92 variants) and replacing them with inferior models (such as the Nspire.)

By '82' do you mean the 82, 83, and 83+ series? (83+(SE), 84+(SE))? They all have approximately the same capabilities.
If TI is phasing out the 92/89/89 Titanium/Voyage 200/etc. then I will be extremely annoyed, since I am set on buying myself a Titanium or Voyage 200.

Last edited by Guest on 02 Nov 2009 09:01:13 am; edited 1 time in total

Is relatively easy to port a ASM ram program for TI-86?
The main issues are safe rams, changes to plot graphics routines (just ignore some part of the screen), small font routine and bcalls. If that is it, I think it is not that hard.

I think that with some documentation would be easy to port... The key port works exactly as with a 83+plus family?

I don't know too much about assembly, but I know that switching from a TI-83 Plus to a TI-86 is an easy process. The commands are very similar to the 83 Plus, except for some being abbreviated (i.e. Output( versus Outpt(, ZStandard vs. Zstd). However, there are more features in basic such as using built-in features such as the polynomial root finder, unlimited variables of any type, and more.

The main difference between the TI-83 Plus and the TI-86 is how each handles variables. On the 83+, you select from a variety of pre-defined variables to use. However, on the 86, any variable can have any name up to 8 characters, but can not be the same as a command. Oh, and I forgot another great thing about the 86--You can type in commands and put them in a custom menu using the catalog.

People in my classes are amazed how my $10 calculator outperforms their $120 ones. Grayscale in assembly programs works much better and is a LOT less flickery, programs can exceed 30 kilobytes, and there are other handy features such as a catalog that remembers your place. I'm definitely sticking with the 86.

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